


Cross-Country

by inlovewithnight



Category: Bandom, Fall Out Boy
Genre: Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-27
Updated: 2013-03-27
Packaged: 2017-12-06 16:55:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,129
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/737968
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inlovewithnight/pseuds/inlovewithnight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ten years. Ups, downs, and sideways.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cross-Country

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lalejandra](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lalejandra/gifts).



(2002)

Pete calls at around one in the morning, which isn't unusual. Andy picks up on the second ring, laying his comic book across his chest. "What?"

"Hurley! What's up?"

"It's one in the morning."

"The night is young."

Sometimes it helps to jog Pete's memory that not everyone is living his life. "I'm in Wisconsin."

"The night is still young in Wisconsin."

"Not here. I'm at my mom's house."

"Rad. Okay. Here's the thing."

Andy sighs and closes his eyes. "Go."

"How would you like a gig?"

Pete's voice has a wheedling tone Andy recognizes well. "Your drummer quit, huh?"

"He totally did and it's for the best, because he sucked. You're a lot better."

"I'm not really into your style, dude." He is a _metal_ drummer. He is a _hardcore_ drummer. Pete's current thing is pop-punk. Pop-punk drums are in general not as awesome as he's interested in.

"I know, I know. I'm just asking you to come on this tour with us. You don't have to marry it."

"Like I'd marry you anyway." 

"Bite me."

Andy looks up at the ceiling. Pete's bands tend to have a pretty short half-life. It would be fun to get out on the road for a while. And a paying gig, even if it probably wouldn't pay _much_. "Yeah, okay. When do you need me?"

"Can you get here, like, tomorrow? To rehearse?"

"Fuck you, Wentz, are you serious?"

"Yeah? C'mon, dude, I'll pay you back for the bus ticket. I promise, it'll be worth it, it'll be fun."

Pete saying _it'll be fun_ is almost always a warning sign. But it's also almost always true. "Yeah, yeah, okay, I'll be there tomorrow. You'd better have a kit I can use."

**

(2005)

Making an international phone call is this close to being too confusing to be worth it. Luckily he gives it one more try and the goddamn thing goes through.

Pete's dad picks up, and for a minute Andy thought he's just going to hang up again, but he sighs and says he'll take the phone in to Pete. Andy taps his fingers against the table, staring out the hotel window and trying not to wonder how Pete's going to sound.

"Hello?"

"Wow, you sound like shit." So much for that.

Pete laughs a little, a raspy choked-off sound. "Dude. Hurley, is that you?"

"Of course, man."

"I didn't think you guys would call. You're supposed to be busy."

"It's the middle of the night here."

"So you're supposed to be asleep."

"I wanted to say hi."

"Hi." Pete falls quiet for a minute. "Hi."

"How's it hanging?"

"Totally, totally shitty."

"But you're hanging in there." He's at home with his parents, forming words, laughing. He has to be hanging in there.

"Yeah. I guess so, yeah. How's the tour?"

"Totally, totally shitty."

"What? What's wrong?"

"You're not here."

"Oh." Pete goes quiet for a moment. "Um."

"Yeah."

"Thanks."

"Yeah." He rubs his eyes and glances at the clock. "We miss you a lot. Get better, okay?"

"Working on it. I promise. I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize to me, man."

"Just to everyone else in, like, the whole world?"

Andy doesn't do this part. Pete hating himself is not his game. "Stop."

Pete shuts up, and they breathe at each other over the phone for a few minutes.

"I'm all behind on my comics," Andy says finally. "This is bullshit."

Pete laughs a little. "You'll have fun catching up when you get back."

"I'll call and tell you all about them."

"Is that a promise or a threat?"

"Both?"

The laugh that gets is better. More real. Andy smiles at the phone and thinks maybe this will be kind of okay.

**

(2008)

Pete texts everyone, with pictures, as soon as the baby is tucked away in the nursery. Andy's still looking through the pictures when his phone rings.

"It's a baby," Pete says, breathless, and Andy can picture the giddy expression that goes with that. "A human baby."

"You got lucky. The next one's gonna be a lizard."

"Oh dude. I don't need a next one. He's perfect, he's amazing, he's, like, the pinnacle of human babies. Everyone else can go home."

"I looked at the pictures. He's red and squishy."

"And amazing."

"That, too. Yeah." Andy grins. "He's totally got your forehead. Giant, like, Neanderthal thing."

Pete laughs loudly enough that Andy holds the phone away from his ear. "He doesn't have any hair yet! That's not all forehead."

"Sure. You can hope."

"You're a jerk."

Andy has never heard Pete sound this happy. After all the months of push and pull and bullshit and fighting over the album, it's a physical relief. "What did you decide on for the name?"

"Bronx Mowgli."

"That is badass."

"Right? Thank you! It's awesome! My mom is so mad at me about it, but it's _awesome_."

"I'll back you up on it. It's a great name."

"Thanks." Pete falls quiet for a minute. "He's my _kid_ , man. My kid. Like. Half made of me."

"Congratulations, Pete. Raise him vegan."

Pete giggles again. "I don't think you're supposed to do that with babies."

"That's what they want you to think. Society. It's got its tentacles in your head."

"Uh-huh." Pete isn't even listening, Andy can tell. "I'll call you soon, okay?"

"I'll _see_ you soon. I'll fly out. Meet Bagheera Boystown."

"Oh my god, do not even."

Andy's grinning so wide his face hurts. "I can think of these all day."

"I'm hanging up on you now."

He does, but the pictures keep coming.

**

(2010)

Bob McLynn calls, but Andy's already at the airport by then, thinking about the age-old question of how is this his fucking life.

"I'm on my way," he says before Bob can say anything. "I'll handle it."

"Yes. You handle it. Because me handling it is going to involve killing him."

"You know what this is like for him." Maybe he doesn't. Andy's known Pete for a really long time. Bob knows Pete _well_ , but maybe it's not the same.

"Just get him back on the rails, Hurley. Nobody else will right now except maybe Saporta, and he's out of the fucking country."

"I know. I know." Andy sighs and looks out the terminal window at his plane. "I'll call you back later."

He tries Pete's phone, and again right before boarding, but Pete doesn't pick up. That could be because of the shitty service in his apartment, or it could be because someone took his phone away from him, or...

Andy isn't going to think about the last one.

When he gets to New York he tries Pete's phone again, then Ashlee's. She picks up on the fourth ring.

"How is he?" Andy asks, skipping the pleasantries. He doesn't feel very pleasant. He's exhausted and worried and massively annoyed, only partially at Pete. The rest of it's at, like... the universe as a whole.

And Patrick. And Joe. Who responded to his texts with levels of whininess that really ought to be fucking banned in adult men.

"He's asleep," Ashlee says, reminding him that he asked a question. "I knocked him out and put Bronx in bed with him hours ago."

Right. While he was racing around getting plane tickets and then flying across the country. "I'm at JFK. I'll get a hotel. Tell him I'll pick him up tonight and we'll get dinner."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?"

The question doesn't make any sense. "Yes."

"I don't know if he'll want to talk to you."

Sometimes Andy wonders if Ashlee didn't get her copy of the basic guide to Pete Wentz. Then he remembers that it doesn't exist, it's just something picked up from knowing the guy for a really long time. "He doesn't want to talk to the other guys. He'll talk to me."

"Because you're not as mad at him as they are?" She sounds skeptical, but maybe a little hopeful, too. Dealing with Pete can't be easy right now, and the idea of having backup must be tempting.

"I'm not mad at him at all." He gets to the taxi pick-up zone and stands in line, ignoring the clutch of tourists staring at his tattoos. "Tell him about dinner when he wakes up, and have him call me."

Pete doesn't call until four in the afternoon, well after Andy started to worry. "You don't have to," is the first thing he hears when he picks up the phone. Hello and how are you are for quitters. "I know you're mad."

"I'm not mad, Pete."

Pete's voice is blurry and cracked. Klonopin barely holding back panic, if Andy knows his tells, and he does. "All that PR work and I just fucking smashed it. I smashed all of it."

"I know." He exhales slowly, trying to center himself. "I'm still not mad."

"I wish you were mad. Then I could just curl up and--"

"Stop."

The rules are the rules. Pete shuts up. They breathe.

"I'll see you soon," Andy says finally. "As soon as I get a cab."

"Thanks," Pete whispers.

"Anything for you, brother." Andy sighs and grabs his room key. "Someday you'll figure out that I mean that, too."

**

(2012)

"I'm just wondering if you can fit it into your busy schedule and shit." Pete's trying way too hard to sound earnest. He just sounds like a dick.

Andy rolls his eyes. "I'm flipping you off right now."

"I'm serious. You've got a lot to do. Stalking the Packers, starting random SXE bands, working out, doing your hair."

"You're welcome to blow me."

"I'll keep that in mind." Pete laughs, that same too-loud laugh that got Andy's attention the first time they met, and sighs. "I don't know, you know?"

"I don't know what you don't know." Andy makes a face at the phone, as if Pete can see him. "You don't know much, I know that."

"Fuck you."

"You started it."

"Suck my dick, dude, I mean..." Pete sighs again. "What if this is a really bad idea?"

Andy rolls his eyes. "What if getting the band back together is a really bad idea."

"Yeah."

"What if giving you back your reason to live is a really bad idea. Hmm."

"It's not my reason to _live_ , fuck you, that's--" Pete stops. "You're making fun of me."

"I totally am. Always."

"Fuck--"

"And if you take getting the band back together away from me because you're feeling weird and insecure, I'll kick you in the balls." He hasn't inflicted physical violence on Pete in years. It still seems to be the threat most likely to get his attention.

"You're the worst pacifist ever." 

Andy can picture the face Pete was making at the phone when he said that. Maybe they've known each other _too_ long. "And you're being deliberately difficult."

"I'm _scared_."

Someone give the man a prize for stating the fucking obvious. "Yeah, I get that. So am I. But I talked to Joe." Just like Pete asked him. "I talked to Patrick." Just like Pete asked him. "They're not humoring you. They're into it. They like the demos."

"Of course Patrick likes the demos," Pete mumbles. "They're his demos."

"I'm going to slap you so hard as soon as I get to LA."

"So... you're coming."

Andy bangs his phone against the edge of his desk until he hears Pete yelling at him to stop.

"You suck," Pete says, but Andy can hear him smiling. "We're seriously going to do this."

"We seriously are. I'm sick of waiting for you guys to get your shit together."

"My shit is together. I'm eating a lot of bran these days, my shit is--"

Andy winces. "Pete."

"What? It's awesome. My poop is awesome."

" _Pete_."

" _What_?"

He closes his eyes and wishes he was actually good with words. "I'm so fucking stoked about this."

"Oh my god." Pete laughs again. "Me too, dude. Me too. It's gonna be... well, it's gonna be horrible, but maybe also awesome."

Andy knows exactly what he means. "If it blows up, you know what, we'll just do a two-man Racetraitor reunion."

"Seriously?"

"Dead serious." Actually, it's not a bad idea for a side project. He'll keep that in his pocket for later. "I miss being in a band with you, Wentz."

"You're in like nine bands."

Irrelevant. "Yeah, and none of them have a jackass in them peeing on me in the middle of the night. That's missing from my life."

"Hurley, I will pee on you as soon as you get here. Count on it. My piss, your leg. It's gonna happen."

Andy grins and wishes he was at his kit. He wants to make some noise right now. "I love you too."


End file.
